RESTAURANTS : Il Forno Branches Out . . . to Tokyo : ‘By COLMAN ANDREWS

Kyoichi Egashira, founder and chairman of the board of the Tokyo-based Royal Company (said to be the second-largest restaurant company in Japan), went shopping recently for an Italian restaurant. And he found the perfect trattoria not in Milan or Florence or even in New York . . . but in Santa Monica.

The restaurant--which opened recently in the Bridgestone Tire Company’s new Pyramid Building in Tokyo’s trendy Roppongi District--is the modest but popular Il Forno. It’s only the first Japanese Il Forno branch--the company formed by Royal and Il Forno owner Joseph Suceveanu (who also owns La Vecchia Cucina in Santa Monica, Tivoli Cafe in Pacific Palisades and the superb Tulipe in West Hollywood), plans to open as many as 10 more Il Fornos around Japan in the next few years. More franchises are planned for Hawaii.

“Instead of just selling my name and know-how like most restaurants do,” Suceveanu says, “I decided to get involved in a joint venture.” Il Forno chefs Antonio Morra and Domenico Salvatore were made partners in the company as well.

The entire Pyramid Building is Italian-themed, with numerous high-fashion boutiques and three other restaurants--outposts of the three-star Antica Osteria del Ponte in Cassinetta di Lugagnano, La Ranarita pizzeria in Milan and the innovative Il Cibreo in Florence. The Tokyo Il Forno, says Suceveanu, looks almost exactly like the one in Santa Monica, with 140 seats, a full bar and an open kitchen. The menu, in Japanese and English/Italian, is identical.

“Not one item is missing,” Suceveanu says, “though prices are about 10% or 15% higher, according to the Japanese market.”

L.A. architect Stanley Felderman (who also did the late Max au Triangle) designed the interior, and will design future Il Fornos.

With all the other Italian restaurants to choose from, even in Los Angeles alone, why did Egashira select Il Forno for Japanese cloning? “To begin with,” Suceveanu replies, “Mr. Egashira wanted to bring something from America because he has a great attachment to this country--which started 40 years ago when he cooked and made ice cream for the American Army in Japan. As to why he chose us specifically, he told us that he likes our food, which is simple and earthy, and that above all he likes our philosophy of service. He wants to have a restaurant where there’s more talking and laughing between the customers and the servers.”

TUTTO NON BENE: There is a new Italian restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper West Side called Tutto Bene. Because a lot of famous people have been seen there lately--among them Paul Simon, Madonna, Ivana Trump (who reportedly tried to buy an interest in the place), Steve Martin and Oprah Winfrey--Tutto Bene has been mentioned frequently in the New York press. Unfortunately, these mentions were not appreciated by another restaurant, this one in Queens, also called Tutto Bene. It filed a $500,000 damage suit against its Manhattan namesake, and asked for a permanent injunction barring the latter from using the name. A countersuit has been filed by the Manhattan establishment.

The question arises, of course, whether this controversy affects our own Tuttobene in West Hollywood. “It’s a funny story,” replies that restaurant’s proprietor, Silvio De Mori. “One night in December, I suddenly got about 20 phone calls from reporters in New York asking me about it. There was even a call from somebody who said she was Ivana Trump, though I’m not sure it was her. But I don’t know anything about these restaurants, or about the lawsuits.” De Mori adds, though, that there is also a Tutto Bene in San Francisco, and another in Mexico City--none of them related.

Incidentally, De Mori and restaurateur Bob Morris (Gladstone’s 4 Fish, R.J.’s the Rib Joint, etc.) have quietly opened a new restaurant called Silvio, between Cathedral City and Palm Springs. “It’s an 8,500-square-foot place,” De Mori says, “with a huge kitchen. The food is exactly the same at Tuttobene. I brought two chefs from there, and my head chef, Brad Fries, will be spending a lot of time there over the next month or so.”

De Mori adds that he and Morris have still another restaurant in the works, scheduled to open late in February, but yet unnamed. “It will be an Italian Gladstone’s,” he says.

RESTAURANT MISCELLANY: Matthew Siegel, former chief sommelier at New York’s “21” Club, is new restaurant manager at Lunaria in West L.A., and has organized the restaurant’s first wine dinner. Winemaker Mike Grgich is the guest of honor; his wines will be served with a four-course dinner. The event is next Sunday at 6:30 p.m., $75 per person. . . . Don Dickman, one-time chef de cuisine at Trumps and executive chef at the Bistro Garden, has been named to head the kitchen at the Carnegie Deli in Beverly Hills. . . . And Zipangu is new at Broadway and Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica, featuring a sushi bar and a menu of Chaya-ish Italian/Californian food.